There’s a very good reason for Miguel’s nickname out
on tour – and it has nothing to do with his beloved Ferrari’s.
Miguel Angel Jimenez is one of the hardest working players
in world golf and a player who totally understands his swing
and the tendencies he has to be wary of

This is Miguel’s starting point in his preshot practice routine. With his right foot drawn back from the left (to help encourage an active hip and upper body turn) he moves his arms and the club ahead of the ball, from where he then gathers up momentum as he swings the club, hands and arms back over the ball, hingeing the wrists to create the exaggerated backswing you see opposite

WIDTH & TURN

The keys to Miguel’s
pre-shot warm-up

At 46, Miguel Angel Jimenez is perfectly aware
that he has to stay ‘loose’ to make the quality of
swing he needs in order to compete with the
young guns on tour today. And it speaks volumes
for the talent of one of the game’s great characters
that he has this year enjoyed one of his finest
seasons on tour, with two victories in Europe and
a starring role in that epic Ryder Cup match.

Miguel’s distinct pre-shot routine is much
talked about and it’s something we have worked
on now for the better part of six years. Rather like
the way in which Corey Pavin makes an exaggerated
rehearsal to neutralise the natural tendencies
in his swing, Miguel focuses on creating early
width combined with a full turn of the upper body.

Left to its own devices, his backswing tends to
see the arms and the club wander too far to the
inside with the result that he is prone to getting
stuck, and forced into a sliding move with the
lower body and then having to rely on hand
action to recover, which is never consistent.

Miguel starts the sequence with the club a
few feet ahead of the ball and then gathers his
momentum as he swings the club, hands, arms
and body together into the backswing
sequence, at the same time cranking his wrists
back to open up the clubface. Doing that helps
him to guard against getting the face too shut –
another tendency he is aware of and works to
neutralise with this routine.

As the clubhead gathers pace Miguel works on rotating his left forearm and really cranking the wrists to get the clubface open, as you see here. He wants to see his arms ‘in front’ of him – i.e. opposite the middle of the chest. This is designed to neutralise a tendency to (1) get his arms too ‘deep’ and (2) to close down the clubface. The result is that he gets it somewhere in between the two extremes when he makes his swing for real on the course (although you can see that he does err on getting that left arm deep across the chest)

STRIKING
A BALANCE

Stretching is key
to Miguel’s
motion

The pre-shot sequence on the previous
spread is the warm-up routine Miguel uses
both on the range and also out on the golf
course. He looks to create width early in his
backswing and plays his best golf when he
enjoys a full shoulder turn, both on the way
back and then as he unwinds through the
ball. A consistent body action is the engine
that drives his swing; our work together is
essentially designed to eliminate independent
arm action. In other words, the exercise
that has become Miguel’s trademark is a
‘sequence maker’ – it gels the movement
of the club, hands, arms and body. Which
is why Miguel is one of the game’s most
accurate and consistent ball strikers.

For my money, Miguel’s practice habits
during a tournament offer up the best possible
example for the typical club player. At
46, he knows that he has to keep his body
‘loose’, and that is why he spends so much
of his time stretching and working on ways
to keep his wonderful tempo. At the start of
a session, he will typically swing two clubs
together (which immediately eliminates any
tendency to want to manipulate the swing
with the hands), slowly building up momentum
with the drill illustrated on the previous
pages. He does this to exaggerate the very
moves he wants to make real in his swing.

He will also stand up straight and swing the
two clubs on a horizontal plane to free-up
his body rotation. And the interesting thing
is that he repeats all of his exercises rightand
then left-handed. In other words he is
mindful of balancing the two sides of his
body. Anyone with a back problem should
take note of this. One of the big problems
with golf is that the action of swinging a
club either right- or left-handed creates a
dominant side – i.e. a right handed player
will be stronger and more powerful in his
right side, and vice versa. As my osteopath
reminds me all too regularly, it’s vital that a
golfer balances the two sides of his body.

And Miguel’s example is one all golfers
should try to follow.

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